Newborn infants with differential patterns of fetal growth, as determined by their weight-for-length, typically display behaviors which have been conceptualized as reflecting the integrity of the infant's behavioral organization. The newborn infant's sucking is one behavior that has been hypothesized to both reflect the effects of previous experiences on behavioral organization and affect the infant's future behavioral development. In particular, the infant's pattern of sucking activity may not only reflect the integrity of the infant's nervous system, it may also alter the temporal organization of the infant's behavioral state and motor activity by increasing behavioral quiescence. The purpose of this study was to compare the sucking activity of underweight-for-length (N = 30) and average-weight-for-length (N = 30) infants and its effects on behavioral state and motor activity. Fifteen low-PI and 15 average-PI infants were randomly assigned to each of two experimental conditions. / Master of Science

The purpose of this study was to assess if preterm infants receiving an intervention of intermittent human tactile contact would demonstrate clinical improvement over infants who did not receive the intervention. A quasi-experimental design was used with 26 infants between 28 and 32 weeks gestation. Hands were placed on the infants' heads and lower backs for a total of 36 minutes of tactile contact a day for 10 days. Findings indicated a significant gain in mean body weight for both groups between Day 0 and Day 10. Also, there was a significant decrease in mean hematocrit in the control group between Day 0 and Day 10. On Day 10, experimental infants had a significantly higher mean number of apneic and bradycardic episodes than control infants. There were no significant mean differences between the groups for body weight, body temperature stability, oxygen variance, or hematocrit. Data suggest that gentle human touch may be correlated with desireable outcomes. Further research is necessary.

In the adult brain, localized increases in neural activity almost always result in increases in local blood flow, a relationship essential for normal brain function. This coupling between neural activity and blood flow provides the basis for many neuroimaging techniques including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). However, functional brain imaging studies in newborns and children have detected a range of responses, including some entirely inverted with respect to those of the adult. Confusion over the properties of functional hemodynamics in the developing brain has made it challenging to interpret functional imaging data in infants and children. Additionally, developmental differences in functional hemodynamics would suggest postnatal neurovascular maturation and a unique metabolic environment in the developing brain. This thesis begins with a series of studies in which I tracked and characterized postnatal changes in functional hemodynamics in rodent models utilizing high-speed, high-resolution multi-spectral optical intrinsic and fluorescent signal imaging. I demonstrated that in early postnatal development increases in cortical blood flow do not occur in response to somatosensory stimulation. In fact, I observed stimulus-linked global vasoconstrictions in the brain. In slightly older age groups, I observed biphasic hemodynamic responses, with initial local hyperemia followed by global vasoconstriction, eventually progressing with age to recognizable adult-like hemodynamic responses. In these studies, I also found that the postnatal development of autoregulation is a potential confound in the study of early functional activation, and may account for some of the variability seen in prior human studies. Charting this progression led to the hypothesis that anomalous functional responses observed in human subjects are due to the postnatal development of neurovascular coupling itself. To directly assess neurovascular development, I performed a further set of studies in Thy1-GCaMP3 mice, permitting simultaneous observation of the development of neural function and connectivity along with functional hemodynamics. My results demonstrate that the spatiotemporal properties of neural development do not predict observed changes in the hemodynamic response, consistent with the parallel development of neural networks and neurovascular coupling. Confirming the presence of vascularly-uncoupled neural activity in the newborn brain led me to question how the brain supports its energy needs in the absence of evoked hyperemia, prompting the exploration of the potential metabolic bases and consequences of developmental changes in neurovascular coupling. Finally, I explore the cellular and vascular morphological and functional correlates of functional neurovascular development. My results confirm that neurovascular development occurs postnatally, which has critical implications for the interpretation of functional imaging studies in infants and children. My work also provides new insights into postnatal neural, metabolic, and vascular maturation and could have important implications for the care of infants and children, and for understanding the role of neurovascular development in the pathophysiology of developmental disorders.

The quality of early infant-caregiver interactions determines the path of an infant's social, cognitive and emotional development. Theoretical and empirical evidence supporting this claim is reviewed, and the implications for early relationship-focussed interventions are considered. The study focuses on infants from birth to three years of age. Developmental psychology research findings are presented, and the role of risk and protective factors in planning preventative interventions are discussed. Recommendations are made for developing a centre-based relationship-enhancing early intervention program for infants and their depressed caregivers. The program is intended for implementation in a rural or periurban South African Primary Health Care setting. / Thesis (M.A.)- University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2002.

An adequate ingestion of essential fatty acids is required for optimal development of the central nervous system and visual acuity in infants. For breast feeding mothers, it is important that a diet containing an adequate balance of essential fatty acids of the n-6 and n-3 series be consumed as this is reflected in breast milk. The objective of this investigation was to determine the essential fatty acid status of breast feeding women and their infants in Havana, Cuba, with particular focus on the n-3 series. The group of 56 Cuban mothers and infants under investigation did not show biochemical or functional signs of poor essential fatty acid status. Based on the biochemical and functional data collected, it is conceivable to conclude that n-3 fatty acid deficiencies must be exceedingly rare, if they exist at all, in the population of breast feeding women and their infants residing in Havana, Cuba. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Early interactions between parents and infants are thought to be critical of later development. In particular joint attention has been an area of research and investigations. This study sought to measure joint attention behaviors in infants from 5 to 33 weeks of age under naturalistic conditions: in the home with the mother as the interaction partner given no instructions. Videotapes of the infant-parent interactions were observed and data were collected on behaviors related to joint attention. Given observations occur at younger ages than other studies considered, engagement data results indicate increasing trends for 3 of the 5 infants observed while the direction of infant gaze results indicate patterns consistent with descriptions currently in the literature. Parent behavior data indicate high levels of support in engaging infant attention. Furthering an understanding of joint attention by observing at earlier ages in infant development may be useful in informing teaching programs for infants who have not developed joint attention skills.

No description available.

Video tape records were made of seventy-seven infants, ranging in age from one to 24 months, as each was exposed for three minutes to four different levels of mirror distortion. A mirror behavior checklist (Amsterdam 1968, 1972) was used to identify 34 possible behaviors. The range and complexity of mirror related activities increases significantly during the first two years of life, culminating in self-recognition by 52% of the subjects aged 19 to 24 months. All subjects responded equivalently to both the plain and distorted mirror images, suggesting that it is the general configuration of the face that holds intrinsic interest at these age levels. The prevailing view that the infant's perception is qualitatively similar to that of the adult was supported by this study. / Master of Science

Background: The Zanzibar Infant Nutrition Campaign is a large-scale randomised control trial investigating the effects of iron and zinc supplementation on the morbidity and mortality of infants and young children on Pemba Island, Zanzibar, Tanzania. The Child Development Study is a substudy of the larger ZINC control trial assessing the effects of 12 months of iron and zinc supplementation on motor and language development. The Caregiver-Infant Interaction Study is a substudy of the Child Development Study, assessing the effects of 1 to 3 months of iron and zinc supplementation on caregiver-infant interaction among 9-month-old dyads. This thesis reports on the dyads enrolled in the Caregiver-Infant Interaction Study. While not examining treatment effects1 • Formulate behavioural and developmental hypotheses specific to a population of 9-month-old caregiver-infant dyads affected by a history of IDA , hypothesised disturbances in the behaviour and development of infants affected by a history of iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) are examined. Objectives: • Develop a hypothesis-driven observational coding system and establish the psychometric properties of this measure • Test hypotheses about the relationship between a history of IDA and the behaviour and development of 9-month-old caregiver-infant dyads Rationale: Iron deficiency anaemia is the most common nutritional disorder in the world. Prevalence is especially high among women, young children and infants in developing countries. As a public health concern, the effects of IDA are various and insidious, however the relationship between IDA and infant behaviour and development is not known. The majority of studies concerned with the impact of IDA in infancy have relied on global developmental scales, such as the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (Bayley, 1969, 1993). While infants with IDA consistently score worse than non-anaemic comparisons on mental and motor subscales, the value of this form of assessment is known to be limited. Apart from being of questionable validity as indices of abilities or functions (e.g., Fagan & Singer, 1983), the scores and ratings produced by traditional developmental scales are not designed to assess the specific functions hypothesised to be affected by IDA (Lozoff, De Andraca, Castillo, Smith, Walter & Pino, 2003). Over-reliance on this kind of measure thus rules out meaningful hypothesis-driven research. Recently, malnutrition researchers have begun to made use of systematic behavioural observation as a means of assessment. While a promising approach, extant research is limited to only two studies (see Footnote 6), and both of these have been conducted by the same research group. Moreover, these studies have relied on fairly rudimentary behavioural coding to examine a version of the ‘Functional Isolation Hypothesis', originally proposed some time ago in the infrahuman literature (Levitsky & Barns, 1972, 1973). More sophisticated hypotheses are available, especially given the ready availability of insights from developmental psychobiology and cognitive science. Design: A correlational design was used to examine the behaviour and development of 9-month old caregiver-infant dyads with a history of IDA. Setting: Wete District, Pemba Island, Zanzibar, Tanzania. Participants: 160 Caregiver-infant dyads assessed observationally at 9-month of age. Main Outcome Measure: Systematic observational coding. Main Findings: Infants with a history of more severe IDA spent significantly less time in high energy states during free play, and their caregivers made less physically demanding requests. A history of IDA also correlated with developmental disturbances in postural control. Affectively, IDA infants were hypo-responsive, and caregivers showed more (overt) positive affect for healthy males, but not females. Caregivers coordinated actions and vocalizations less often during interaction with infants affected by a history of IDA. Conclusion: A history of IDA among 9-month old infants is related to behavioural and developmental disturbances in both motor and socio-cognitive domains. Note to reader: The present research was first submitted as a Masters dissertation in 2008. The author was subsequently offered the opportunity rather to upgrade to a Doctoral thesis and resubmit the work as PhD. Chronologically then, studies which did not inform the design and development of the coding system used for data collection, or which published findings after the first submission of the present work, are discussed in the final chapter. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

Intellectual stimulation of young children is crucial, because it helps to break the cycle of poverty by giving each child the skills needed to reach his or her maximum potential. There is a growing need for more extensive early childhood development programmes in South Africa. Several studies in early childhood development have been shown to directly draw a parallel with enhanced student achievement at school and in life (Ackerman, 2005; Bueno, Darling-Hammond, & Gonzales 2010; Frede, Jung, Barnett, & Figueras, 2009). This study therefore explored the effects of an intervention programme introducing numbers, shapes and colours to infants between the ages of three months and 12 months. The sample consisted of 63 infants, with a control group of 34 and an experimental group of 29. The participants were selected from the middle-income group and consisted of infants from three different ethnic groups (black, white and coloured). Nine participants from the experimental group formed part of the focus group, which met every two weeks to give feedback and discuss the development of the infants and experiences of the parents involved in the intervention programme. In this study quantitative and qualitative data was collected. This data was assessed and analysed in order to achieve the four aims of the research study. The Bayley Scales of Infant Development (III) was used to assess three areas of development, namely cognitive ability, language skills and motor skills for the quantitative part of the study. The adaptive behaviour and social-emotional functioning of the infants was also assessed using the BSID (III), and this data was used in conjunction with the focus group feedback and problem-solving scenarios for the qualitative part of the study. Gender and the two age categories (3–7 and 8–12 months) for both the experimental and the control groups were examined and excluded from possible explanations for any significant findings. It was also determined that the control and experimental groups were well matched at the start of the intervention programme. The findings for aim A, the pre-test and post- test results showed that an average of 60 days involved in intervention programme had a statistically significant effect (z = -4.32, p < 0.001) on the cognitive ability of the infants. The findings for aim B, for the comparison between the control and experimental groups after the intervention programme, indicated significant results for the cognitive subscale (U = 732, p < 0.01, r = 0.42). Although the language and motor scores showed an increase in the descriptive statistics for the experimental group after the intervention, the Mann-Whitney U test did not show a significant difference. The findings for the qualitative study for aim C revealed that there was no effect on the adaptive behaviour of the infants. The findings for the social-emotional scales descriptive statistics for the qualitative study in aim D showed that there was a fairly large increase in the composite score means of the experimental group in comparison with the control group. The large increase in results complements the social-emotional functioning theme that emerged from the focus group. Three main themes emerged from the focus group, namely the cognitive ability, communication skills and social-emotional functioning of the infants.The increase in the social-emotional scale for the intervention group and the increase in the cognitive scale as mentioned in aim B were interrelated. These early social-emotional experiences are linked to long-term positive outcomes in both the social and cognitive areas of development (Landry, Smith, Swank, & Miller-Loncar, 2000). The parents all reported the ability to interpret the communication from their infants when participating in the flashcard sessions. This communication forms a foundation for establishing language development. Relationships between an infant’s nonverbal communication skills and subsequent language development have been reported (Brooks & Meltzoff, 2005). The problem-solving scenarios that were assessed during the second assessment showed that the infants who participated in the intervention programme were able to correctly identify a flashcard 73% of the time in comparison with the control group who were only able to identify a flashcard 1.4% correctly. The results of the study show that an early intervention programme has the potential to increase an infant’s cognitive ability and enhance his or her social-emotional functioning. However, the long-term impact of these findings would have to be explored in a longitudinal study. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)